Threat Control through Arms Control. Report to Congress 1994
Abstract
Arms control is threat control. It is national defense by cheaper means. Every foreign weapon eliminated is a weapon the United States no longer needs to counter. In military, diplomatic, and budgetary terms, arms control is an essential component of sound national security strategy for the 1990s and beyond. Arms control has not been successful every time in every situation. But arms control can frequently address threats unreachable by military force. If viewed as a weapon for removing threats, arms control is staggeringly cost effective. America is far more secure with it than without it. Consider, for example, the tens of billions of dollars the United States and the Soviet Union spent on capabilities to forcibly destroy each other's ICBM silos. Now arms control is destroying those same silos with far higher confidence, without fear of bloody retaliation, and at cost three orders of magnitude lower. Consider also the condition of our national security if the World Trade Center terrorists had been armed with a nuclear weapon. In ten minutes, we would have lost twice as many American lives as in the ten years of Vietnam. Preventing a recurrence would have become our highest national priority, at very high cost and uncertain probability of success. But the terrorists had no nuclear weapons because the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty denied them nuclear material. These two examples illustrate the great and growing need for arms control and nonproliferation. We are in one of the most critical periods in arms control history. The permanent and unconditional extension of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty on May 11, 1995 is a step forward for the security of all nations. At the same time, other significant challenges remain, stretching out far into the future. I have touched on only two of the vital arms control and nonproliferation issues with which America must
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 13, 1994
- Accession Number
- ADA338036